Mercy and Rocky’s Litter-Summer 2016

Mercy and Rocky had 8 beautiful puppies!!!! They were born August 15th, 2016. Mama is doing great and is being very attentive to her little ones. We are so in love already…

Mercy nursing her new pups

What do their first few days look like?

The first 36-48 hours are critical when working with puppies. With the competition they deal with nursing alongside their brothers and sisters, not everyone gets their fill. Jake and I check on them constantly to check their hydration levels and make sure they are latching. If they don’t seem to be getting their fair share of mama’s milk, we supplement a feeding with goats milk. In the first couple of days we also give them color collars and weigh them so all of us can keep track of their progress. We give them lots of love and monitor their body temperature with lots of snuggles.

In their first few days they have not opened their eyes yet and can’t walk. They crawl around quite impressively, however, and can get to mama’s milk. They also don’t bark or cry yet and instead make a sweet chirping noise. All of their time is spend eating or sleeping with Mercy. We take Mercy for short walks but she is always pulling us back to her babies in no time. She is such a good mama!

Here are individual photos of each of them from their first day!

Boy-Black Collar-10.6oz

Boy-Blue Collar-12.6oz

Girl-Gold Collar-12.7oz

Girl-Green Collar-11.6oz

Girl-Pink Collar-13.2oz

Girl-Purple Collar-11.9oz

Boy-Red Collar-12.1oz

Girl-Yellow Collar-11.7oz

We are over the moon with these cuties!!! I know it may seem crazy to think about having to choose just one but don’t worry…we’ll get there later! For now, just enjoy these little ones and soak up their adorableness!

“Is there anything I can do now?!”

Yes! This is a great time to start getting things ready for your puppy. If it has been a while since you’ve had a puppy I recommend reading our check list about the basics you’ll need for your puppy: New Puppy Check List.

If you would like to look at additional resources, check out the resource page on our website.

8/19/16: The puppies are continuing to grow! Here they are nursing with Mercy and trying to stay cool in this hot weather! Normally, they are over a rug to help them stay warm but these past few days they have been on the hardwood to stay cool.

Staying hydrated!

8/23/16: The puppies are now one full week old! They still have their eyes closed but are starting to move around a lot more. It was hard to get still pictures of most of them because they were moving so much! They are still spending all their time with Mercy and getting lots of sleep and eating. They have grown so much!

Puppy Love!!!!

Here are their individual pictures and weights this week:

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8/29/16: The puppies are now 2 weeks old!!

New this week: they have started to open their eyes and are getting a lot more mobile, though they aren’t walking quite yet. We will also cut their nails so they are used to it. This makes grooming them when they are bigger much easier for you and the groomer. They continue to spend all their time sleeping and eating mama’s milk. They no longer need to have goat milk supplementation as they are each big enough to get their share.

They are getting so big we have to put them in our laundry basket to carry them all! They love snuggling with their siblings!

Here are this weeks individual photos and weights:

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9/6/16: Coming in at 3 weeks old these little guys have grown leaps and bounds! They are no so active and are starting to walk around. Their barks are getting more pronounced and their eyes are engaged and alert. This week they will get to outside for the first time! We will post a video later this week so be sure to check back in a few days!

Here are their individual shots and weights for week 3:

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*This is a good time to start thinking about whether or not you would like to sign up for Puppy K. It is our Kindergarten program where we keep the puppies for an extra week and work on initial potty training and crate training. The total cost is $412 for the class and you can sign up online. We only have 3 out of 5 spots left for this litter so I recommend talking about it and seeing if it is a good idea for your family. You can read more about it and/or sign up on our website on our Puppy K page.

9/8/16: The weather finally cleared up enough for us to take the puppies outside this week! Check out how cute these guys are!!!

They were also so cute with Jake (aka the dog whisperer) on this video! They just love him!

Mama Mercy is also enjoying longer stretches away from the pups. She is still pulling us back to them but will go further on our walks. She is such a good mama!

9/13/16: Week 4!! I can’t believe how fast these guys are growing! And they just keep getting cuter! This is the half way point for them to be going home! This is the time when I recommend taking a look at the New Puppy Check List and making sure you have everything you need. While you still have some time to get everything, it is good to start looking at what is needed.

This week we have added in straw to their play area as mama is no longer cleaning up after them. They have access to the outside at all times (except night time or if it is too cold out) now and can be indoor or outdoor. Mercy is starting to spend more time away from them as they grow in independence.

It is so much fun getting to see their little personalities show! Here are their pictures from this week:

9/20/26: This is an exciting week!! Their personalities are definitely showing through and we are loving seeing them learn and explore!

Next week we will start the puppy match up process! Therefore, this week what I would like is for everyone to watch the videos and look at the pictures and pull out 3-4 of your favorite puppies.

Here is how it will go: Between now and then Jake and I will perform a temperament test on each of the puppies. Please read that blog post so you know what tests we are doing and you can think about the kind of temperament you are looking for in a puppy.

Keep in mind that with Golden Doodles there will not be any extremes and you are going to find more similarities between each of the puppies than differences. In addition, your puppy’s personality will be a combination of it’s nature and your nurture. So having a good training foundation is key. You can read through our Biggest Mistakes Made When Housebreaking to help you avoid pitfalls.

After we have done the temperament test with each of the puppies, we will look through all the applications and pick our top 2-3 puppies for what you were looking for. Then we call the first people on our list. Together we talk about the puppies that stood out to them and the puppies that stood out to us for them. After going over the test results and talking it through they will pick which one they want. Once they are matched up, we will repeat the process with the second people on our list and so on until everyone is matched up.

Often people are concerned with getting matched up with the “right puppy.” My advice is always to not worry about it! The process always feel very natural and organic. And remember–they are all super cute and it is hard to go wrong! The only problem I run into is when people have their mind set on ONE puppy and that puppy gets chosen. To avoid that, please keep an open mind and open heart to all of the puppies and narrow down your favorites to 3-4.

Here are videos of them playing outside! We took them out two at a time so you can get a good look at how adorable they are:

Here are individual pictures:

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9/26/16: Match up week has finally arrived!! I will be giving everyone a call this week when I am ready to match them up so be on the look out for my call! This process can take a while so please be patient if you don’t hear from me for a few days. Also, please keep in mind there are other families waiting for their puppy match up after you! If you are not signed up for Puppy K this is the time to order your vitamins and food so it can be there when your puppy comes home!

Here are individuals of each of the puppies and their temperament test results. Please review the test in order to see what behaviors the puppies exhibited to earn the results they got. Keep in mind, this is a guideline for you to use–not the final say on their personalities. As the shy personalities get comfortable/older you may see them not as shy. The independent behaviors may also decrease as a puppy bonds with their family. Basically, please see this as a helpful tool but do not put too much into it. We have spent the last 6 weeks with them and can tell you they are all sweethearts! We would love to keep any (or all–hehe!) of them!!

Black

stroke-shy

cradle-shy/responsive

sound-independent

collar-shy

outside-responsive

food-responsive

Blue

stroke-responsive

cradle-shy/responsive

sound-independent/shy

collar-shy

outside-responsive

food-responsive

Red

stroke-responsive

cradle-responsive

sound-responsive

collar-shy

outside-shy/responsive

food-responsive

Pink

stroke-responsive

cradle-responsive

sound-responsive

collar-shy

outside-responsive

food-responsive

Yellow

stroke-shy

cradle-shy/responsive

sound-independent

collar-shy

outside-responsive

food-responsive

Green

stroke-responsive

cradle-independent/responsive

sound-responsive/shy

collar-responsive

outside-responsive

food-responsive

Gold

stroke-responsive

cradle-responsive

sound-shy/responsive

collar-responsive

outside-responsive

food-responsive

Purple

stroke-shy

cradle-responsive

sound-independent

collar-shy

outside-shy/responsive

food-responsive

Also happening this week–they are getting their first round of shots! Their second round will need to be set up with your vet. They need to happen between 10-12 weeks old. If you are going to a smaller operation or a busy one you can schedule that appointment now. *Important–your puppy should not be out in public until they get their second round of shots!! I know you will want to show them off so I always aim for the 10 week mark!

Talk to you soon!

10/10/16: I was so happy with how the puppy matchup process went! It was so nice getting to meet some of the families yesterday! Pick-up day is always bitter sweet for us. I love getting to meet the families and see them with their new puppy. But, it sure is hard to let them go! We are excited for this next week of puppy k–we will communicate via e-mail!

To all our puppy families, thank you for sharing in this journey with us!

Yes! Please feel free to come and visit on the 9th and meet your puppy! We just added the puppy k class for this litter so you can sign up online on our website under the puppy k tab on our menu. Just sign up for Mercy’s litter! When you come to visit on the 9th it is nice if you can bring a t-shirt of yours (one you don’t mind getting rid of) and I will put it in their crate during puppy k. That way your puppy will be familiar with you scent and it helps them when they go home because they will already know the smell!!

If you only knew how often I check back for updates! Ha! My husband is like “you need a puppy web cam.” I need my puppy fix! I know I will have as much as I can get in a few weeks, but I am so excited and looking forward to our little ball of energy and love! 😍

Brenda: “If you only knew how often I check back for updates”…me too – especially on Tuesdays! Actually, last week I signed up with a web service that now checks the page every hour for updates and notifies me if there are any. (There are a lot of similar services, but not many will do hourly checks for free) It is too bad WordPress will only alert about new posts and comments, not about changes to existing posts.

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Allie Carlson

Learning about life, loving Jesus, and raising little ones. I am a mom, wife, dance teacher, dog breeder, puppy trainer, and I worked as a Chemical Dependency Counselor for 3 years. I am an adventurer, extrovert, and homesteader.

About Allie

Learning about life, loving Jesus, and raising little ones. I am a mom, wife, dance teacher, dog breeder, puppy trainer, and I worked as a Chemical Dependency Counselor for 3 years. I am an adventurer, extrovert, and homesteader.